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Bamboo
Bamboo floors look and feel like wood except bamboo is really a grass and can actually be harder than some woods. Its attraction lies with its environmental sustainability (the bamboo plant matures in roughly 4 to 7 years and regenerates after cutting), its dimensional stability (it expands and shrinks less than wood) and its hardness, given proper harvesting and processing techniques.
Pros
- Environmentally friendly – bamboo (which is a grass) is harvested from sustainable bamboo plantations that regenerate every 4-7 years
- Hardness on quality bamboo material is consistent with some hardwoods
- Good dimensional stability – expands & contracts less than hardwood
- Resistant to moisture (but excessive moisture exposure is detrimental)
- Longer warranties up to 25 years on some products
- Carbonizing (natural coloring) process produces color through the bamboo making chips or scrapes less noticeable (however carbonizing also reduces the hardness)
Cons
- Bamboo is an ‘engineered’ wood and contains glues which may give off higher levels of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) due to formaldehyde content
- Quality of the bamboo can vary – cheaper products may not have the durability and quality of higher-priced bamboos from more established manufacturers
- Bamboo doesn’t have the grain variation that wood has with its numerous species
- Bamboo floors are still young within the marketplace relative to hardwood – time will tell as to their long-term durability and quality